Kumo was kind of a drag. Youka had clearly placed his own brand on it and to be honest it was gross. It wasn't that Maku had any moral qualms with the pain and suffering, but for fucks sake couldn't he light some candles. The stench was horrid, and the more he looked around the less he was into this place. Youka had given him a run down on what he planned, and while he accepted it and was game, it also wasn't good enough. If he was back, he was going to do things his way. That didn't involve hiding out in a fortress of pestilence, it meant treating the world like a prom date. A little foreplay, inserting himself into the situation, and then leaving it disappointed it didn't get its way.

All of that in mind is what led Maku to sitting on top of the Kage administration building get, smoking. The smoke swirled in the wind and his eyes scanned the entire village. Overall, he wasn't impressed. He knew from Youka Aki was here somewhere. However, judging on his last note he had sent her meeting with her wasn't on the table just yet. Especially considering she was married. To Youka, which was just plain weird when he thought about it. It stirred unknown feelings, and he had no intention of exploring them at this present time.

Flicking the last remnants of the paper roll down the side of the building he made a hand seal. A gold bubble formed around him for a few moments. Kumo would fill his vision for a moment more, and then his reality was ripped from the village.

Where before there was village now there was nothing but forest. Standing up, he would look around. This area was where Youka and himself had first met. Travelers on the road to Konoha. It was interesting to be back, a spot that held such significance and yet was guaranteed to be overlooked.

His pack was on his shoulder. His blade on his left hip, and his robes being blown in the wind. He had recovered his entire regalia, and wore every piece of equipment. The mask of suppression sat on top of his head, keeping his blonde hair tied behind his face. His eyes sky blue, and a smile on his lips. To Konoha it was.....

There was something comforting about a routine. Routines allowed one to know exactly what to expect each day right down to the minute. For some routines were boring, but for others they allowed them to go through life without thinking. Operative Wolf did not much like thinking too much. Evitably her mind wandered to those she had killed and those she had failed to save. No, it was better to focus on work and for now, work was as routine as it got.

It was midday and the first hints of Fall were in the air, the shone in a cloudless sky as cool breeze sent leaves dancing about. Truth be told Wolf was actually enjoying her day. Having been tasked with patrolling the forest around Konohagakure for the week was a nice change of pace. Instead of busting heads and taking names she now found herself keeping a keen eye out for would be smugglers or wanted criminals stupid enough to waltz to Konohagakure's front door. Suffice to say the past three days had been blessedly uneventful.

Then the wind shifted and everything changed. Someone was in the forest with them and it smelled human laced with what smelled like a rotting corpse. No normal human would catch such a scent, but to Wolf and Chai it was painfully obvious and call to duty. Too often shinobi relied on their chakra senses, Wolf did not. This was what made her an expert tracker and feared hunter. Reporting her findings via the tattoo all operatives bore she moved on. Protocol still had to be followed; sloppiness was unacceptable.

Moving silently through the trees and underbrush Wolf made her way towards the source of the smell. Cloaked in the attire of her profession her chakra signature would be undetectable making her a literal ghost. This was her forest and no one would catch her unawares.

Perhaps luck was on her side that day because she caught up with the scent and entered a clearing only to see a man with his back turned to her. If it was wartime then the man would already be dead; Wolf would not have hesitated. However, as times stood now it was unwise to attack anyone who wanders off the beaten path.

To accent her words she drew her sword from its sheath on her left hip and extended it out towards the man's back. Of course, this was mostly for show as the two were roughly six or seven meters apart.

Hopefully furthering her image Chai let out a feral growl as he stood to Wolf's left. Hackles raised and teeth beared the hound looked every part the attack dog. Wolf and Chai were quite the fearsome duo, too often they were the last people criminals saw before departing the world.

You came to the wrong neighborhood, buddy.

"Battle not with Monsters lest ye Become a Monster and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes also into you"

He hadn’t heard her approach. He hadn’t heard the dog either. He had in fact been lost in his reverie of a memory. His mind only thinking of Youka, and the day they had met. His right hand had moved into his pocket prior to her arrival. When she arrived and ordered him to state his business, his right hand came from the cloak flute in hand. Its design was simple, and to anyone it would appear to be a simple musical instrument, which was perfectly fine by him.

Turning to face her his right hand would make a waving motion in her direction. The genjutsu he wove was a subtle one. He was merely planting the seed of his chakra into the shinobi as well as the pup, it would eventually grow to fruition, but not yet. The ephermal genjutsu would cause his eyes to appear green despite the swirl into red and black. It would also lace his words with trust. It was subtle, and couldn’t have ever been used to force one to believe everything he said. Yet it was enough to make him more trusting that normal. It was the subtle things that go by, he was a shinobi after all. “My apologies, for intruding…..” He would say with a smile. “My name is Hoshti Uzumaki. I am merely getting the lay of the land.” He would continue. His hands were up in a surrendering gesture.

“I am an ex-member of Takigakure, from before it was destroyed.” A note of pain would be in his voice, as if the destruction of his village continued to cause him great pain. “I now work as a simple mercenary, for merchants and VIPs protecting them on their business travels. There is a man coming to this village soon to try and sell his wares. I like to be prepared..” He would say sheepishly. Almost acknowledging that he knew he probably shouldn’t be here, but the idea of being unprepared was even worse.

He would watch her, unable to feel out her chakra just as she wouldn’t be able to feel his. Interesting, he wondered how she had achieved the ability. Suppression perhaps, it was no doubt she was an ANBU of the leaf with that mask. She must know so many of the village secrets……”May I ask who I am speaking with, though I doubt you will give me a real name.” His left hand would point to the mask on top of his head. “I know the rules, we weren’t called ANBU, but we followed the name and mask rule.” Takigakure hadn’t been a major village, they never had any powerful shinobi besides the one time ruler who abandoned them for islands. Had he stayed perhaps this part wouldn’t even be a lie.

Stiffening as the man turned around Operative Wolf just barely stopped herself from jumping into action. What she initially thought to be a sword was, in fact, a flute. With a personal weakness for the performing arts, plays especially, she had been well acquainted with many different instruments. Sure, she couldn't play any of them, but she could appreciate them in the hands of a skilled practitioner. Still, it was odd that the man carried a flute with him. Then he spoke with an innocent wave.

I suppose it wouldn't hurt to hear him out...

The man's dazzling green eyes and almost effeminate features were a bit off-putting, but his words seemed believable. Wolf had read the operational reports on the fall of the waterfall village. It had not been a pretty sight. Wolf was actually rather surprised the man yet lived. However, it was not the surprise that was most bizarre, it was the fact that the man's story pulled at her heartstrings just a bit. She pitied him. Yes, an ANBU operative who trained all her life to harden her heart to all suffering now found herself feeling sorry for the man across from her. It wasn't right yet it felt as if it were.

"Wolf, Wolf is the only name you need know."

This poor man. Fucking job.

"And considering our shared background I am sure you will understand when I ask for some form of identification," Wolf replied dropping the point of her sword a few inches. A bit of trust and pity was not enough to break the training Wolf had been through. She still had a job to do no matter how uncomfortable it now made her. "Then I can direct you back to the main road."

Chai too allowed his low growl to taper off and his hackles to fall. Surely the man was just a bit lost. The roads in and out of Konohagakure could get quite confusing for foreigners, Wolf rationalized. The guy seemed harmless enough. Then again everyone appeared harmless until they had a knife to your throat. Wolf had learned that the hard way.

"Battle not with Monsters lest ye Become a Monster and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes also into you"

Maku watched as the ANBU operative watched him. His time had left him a little less than dazzled by the high ranking village nin. He saw it as nothing but a constrictor on oneself. Still, he supposed they could have value. This one was about to give him great information after all, so he should be great full all things considered. They weren’t so far apart, and through her mask he particularly watched her eyes. When the moment came that she looked at him in his pretty greens, the Tsukyomi would take hold. The ephermal would break, only to replaced by a genjutsu of incredible power.

In the tsukyomi nothing would outwardly change. He kept the rouse of the ephermal going. She was his now, but it was best to just play it out. Victims became such complainers when he sought to break their mind. He didn’t want this one stripping or something weird on him when he just wanted info. “Very kind of you. I completely understand.” Within the genjutsu his form would move his arms slowly reaching into his cloak. He would then toss a small book to the ANBU operative. If she opened it she would find several identification cards. The first a village identification card from Takigakure with the name and rank that he had lied about. The next several would be different permits for other nations, and some that marked him as a professional body guard. “Are we square?” He would ask smiling.

He would then walk forward to follow her to the main road. This was of course all an illusion. The ability of the tsukyomi, and the amount of time he could make it last compared to the real world was nearly unimaginable. With this, the dog would never notice the pause. He had no intention of letting this go on longer than a millisecond in the real world.

“The main road, this way?” He would ask as he let her lead him towards the imaginary road. He was letting her mind fill in the blanks, so what she imagined she should see she would. Including the direction and forest lay out. As they walked Maku already began to prod inside her mind, attempting to read her thoughts, to see what information she could give him. It was possible this would give her a weird feeling as if she was being watched. Yet, his voice would still have the truth quality to it.

“So, how long have you been an ANBU?” He would ask her making small talk. “Tell me; is the village in any alliances of late?” His second question was the most obvious he had made. He was working with the genjutsu, attempting to get some information. She could resist, she was a trained shinobi. It would be interesting to see her psyche fight against the power of the Tsukyomi.

As her blade inched down ever so slowly Wolf's eyes darted up watching for any small tells. Eyes often betrayed a person's true intentions, any shinobi worth their salt knew this. In the spritely green orbs of Hoshti Uzumaki she neither saw deception nor ill intent. It was nice for a change to be dealing with what appeared to be an honest man. Of course, she was not so naive to build a character assessment based on eyes alone. Hoshti was, after all, a former special ops agent for Takigakure or so he claimed.

Without taking her eyes off the man in front of her, Wolf caught the book he tossed with her left hand. Flipping it open she only gave each page a cursory glance. Everything seemed to check out. Bringing her blade across her body the Inuzuka effortlessly sheathed her blade. She then tossed the book back before responding.

"Yes, right this way," Wolf agreed and off the pair went.

It felt like a tug on her very being. It was not uncomfortable, but it was not natural. Something was up. Shaking her head ever so slightly as if to clear whatever was in her mind with a physical action. Then came the questions. What was with these questions? In the back of Wolf's mind, a muted alarm began sprang to life."You don't do your research do you?" Wolf asked ignoring the question about how long she had been a ANBU operative and redirected the conversation in regards to Konoha's allies. Any self-respecting special ops operative of any caliber would do their research about a village they were going to, did Hoshti not? Wolf would not willingly disseminate village information no matter how trustworthy her confidant seemed, honeyed words were not nearly enough. Suspicion was beginning to creep through the woman as the alarm in her head became louder and louder.

"Battle not with Monsters lest ye Become a Monster and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes also into you"

The operative stood off, concealed by the contours of the trees just outside of the village. With a gloved hand pressed to the surface of the tree branch she was propped up upon, she'd sense her nearby area, going further out until she took notice of a pair. A fellow operative and an odd man by which she'd never sensed. Thus, Tiger would stand up straight, proceeding to shoot along the tree tops, allowing chakra to suppress itself just near her oculars.

The redhead beneath her felinial mask moved at an extensive pace, closing in on the pair rapidly, moving with such speed that she appeared as a blur to those without untrained eyesight, even further concealed as she moved amongst the shadows of leaves. Chakra would flood to her eyes, triggering her fully-matured Sharingan. As she closed in with relatively little to no time to spare, she immediately recognized the disturbance in Wolf's chakra reserves.

The fully-suited Tiger would squint down upon the male, making her presence relevant with the sudden quote on quote 'roar' of her chakra reserves, that easily made the tree quake and start to form several fractures from the pressure of her reserves. The operative would stand up, the only part of her visible being her hateful, glowing Sharingan. Once Maku noticed, which would've probably been soon with her obvious entrance, she'd thrust off of the branch in an instant.

In one fluid motion, her right hand moved to unsheathe her ANBU sword, while her left hand formed half of a Ram handseal. The chakra already flooded around her form, making itself apparent as a vicious aura of bloodlust and disdain would empower her movement. It seemed that within a flash she'd be before Maku thanks to the effects of the Body Flicker technique induced upon her. And with just as impressive momentum, she'd slash forth, swinging her blade downward with the intent of cleaving him from the left shoulder to his right side, near his kidney.

The arm that she used to form the Ram handseal would outstretch itself, if permitted, as she aimed to press her palm against Wolf's frame in any manner necessary to briefly share the Uchiha's reserves with her own, and dispell the Tsukuyomi in one fell swoop. Her eyes quickly flickered along his frame. Blonde hair, green eyes. A man who'd once spoken with one of the former Hokage, and a man whom possessed her clan's doujutsu. Judging by the excess flow of chakra to his eyes, he was using it right now most likely.

Glancing up Maku heard, felt, and saw the motion in the trees. The powerful chakra signature made its immediate presence known. Obviously this wasn’t someone going stealth mode, and instead wanted to make an entrance. His eternal sharingan eyes would catch the movement, and the tracking ability would allow him to guess where her final destination was. It was during the moments that she was drawing and making the half hand seal that he would begin to turn to his right at full speed. It was as she hit the ground, and she started the quickdraw he would make his move. To her he would vanish, but not because of speed. The blink forward brought him to the left of Ashi and the right of Anri giving him equal distance between the pair.

His earlier turn would be completed and allow him to have both ANBU in sight, one to his forward left and one to his forward right. “Errr, is she one of yours?” He would ask in the general direction of Ashi. The Tsukyomi would have ended when he looked up at the chakra disturbance. The last bit of the illusion that occurred being her reading his “credentials” and him catching it back. That limited amount of time in the genjutsu would have made no time pass. He would have planted the seed of certainty in Ashi’s mind, causing what she had read in that fake book to be absolutely and irrevocably true.

What a fun day this was turning out to be, two members of the ANBU, for that is surely what they were. Only another ANBU would dive in like this, and the mask, the armor, the affinity for black despite clearly not being fashionable…….well that part was a lie it was always fashionable. “Can I help you lass?” He would add to his original statement to Ashi, this time directed at the new comer. It really was shaping up to be a party.

Part of him almost let loose at her actions. The swell of chakra in his body completely hidden due to the mask on his head, but to him he had felt it. In almost every scenario, he used the technique. It had become a bit of a signature, and it just got the ball rolling really. This however was not the time to go that far, not yet anyway. He had had the pleasure of merely one ANBU, now however he had the excitation of two.

The disconnect between illusion and reality was almost flawless, almost. Wolf recognized it instantly, well, it was hard not to really. The last thing she saw were the credentials of one Hoshti Uzumaki disappearing into the aforementioned man's cloak. However, the last thing Wolf did was sheathe her blade as Hoshti took back his passport. And yet time itself seemed to stutter backward as Operative Tiger appeared. Instead of being firmly in its sheathe her sword hung limply by her right side.

Something is wrong.

It had all seemed so real too. Wolf found herself certain that the man before her was indeed Hoshti Uzumaki, but then there was Tiger. Wolf did not even register the blonde man's question; her mind was swirling into a conflicting maelstrom of facts. Hoshti Uzumaki...Tiger...two irreconcilable realities. Then there was the sword, she had heard the blade seat in the sheath with its comforting click, but then it was in her hand again. It didn't make sense, well, until it did.

As vague realization washed over Wolf the grip on her blade tightened and a snarl as feral as any escaped from behind her mask. When it came to conflicting facts Wolf fell back to one that was universal among the ANBU, trust your fellow operatives. Tiger was the one she would trust. She attacked the blonde, therefore he was a threat. End of story.

Flicking her blade upwards in a smooth arc as the blonde had just opened his mouth for the second time Wolf released a wave of deadly chakra. Five meters in height and half a meter in width the sharpened chakra moved in a ravenous wedge towards the blonde. Were the man unable to dodge then he would find himself bisected perfectly pieces, left and right. Of course, the wedge of chakra itself would also hit Tiger were she not to move, but Wolf once again trusted her fellow operative to be quick on her feet. Plus right now Wolf was just mad, she hated being tricked.

I have some choice words for you Hoshti.

Chai, on the other hand, remained by Wolf's side watching and waiting. One thing the pair learned over the years was timing, timing was everything. Charging in on a man they knew nothing about? Well, that would constitute bad timing and neither Wolf nor Chai wished to willingly throw away the other's life in a boneheaded assault. Too many times in her career Wolf had paid for her recklessness, but not today.

[AP: 537-30 from rupture---> 507 ap remaining. Rupture arc carries a sharpness of 150, moves at a speed of 60 and has a range of 65 meters. Swing at 100 speed.]

"Battle not with Monsters lest ye Become a Monster and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes also into you"

The Uchiha beneath her tiger mask kept her sensory up to par, so when the male vanished in a blink of an eye, she immediately heightened how much concentration she had, into her sensing ability. As she turned around, she squinted as the male had uttered more words, then quickly took notice of Wolf's chakra starting to summon itself up. Tiger would adeptly showcase her recognition of how the technique was kneaded and of the like, represented by the swirling of three tomoe within her eyes. Prior to the technique's release, she'd use the Body Flicker technique to avoid the attack.

As she geared her movement away from the incoming attack, her slightly precognitive sight would be set upon the blonde, to guess what he'd be doing as a counter attack. If he tried to dodge as she did, he'd be in for a surprise. The Uchiha's chakra would knead in the exact same way that Wolf's did, and thus after the initial arc another would follow with a swift slash of Tiger's weapon. It'd zoom forward briskly, showcasing the same speed as Wolf's.

And just as quick as the attack came, one of Tiger's own would. She would continue to watch if the male avoided the pair of chakra-enhanced arcs of chakra that went toe and toe with one another. With her free hand she'd contort half-seals, then bolts of lightning chakra suddenly trickled across her blade, making a sizzling-sound as they traveled along it's length and suddenly engulfed it in an aura of powerful and potent chakra of the Raiton affinity.

With her attack as swift as usual, she'd send it hurling forth in one straight motion to try and thrust right into him if he was busy with her own Rupture. On it's way to him she'd press her palm to the tattoo on her left shoulder, directing Wolf to where he'd move if he did anything of the sort, in the event that he did do that. She'd foresee something if it occured otherwise, in which case she'd tell Wolf with the telepathic tattoo communication.

*: +30 and +10 if my chakra stat doesn't scale with Chakra Blade. Extra +10 to sharpness is because of Anri's Will, and the Ninjutsu Power of the technique essentially ties into the sharpness boost.-----30 from Rupture-20 from Lightning Release: Chakra Blade-10 from Body Flicker-1 from Three Tomoe

538/630

"As Konoha's sword I will fight, and as Konoha's shield I shall protect."Statistics || App